Psalms 4:8

Both. — Better, and at once. So the LXX. and Vulg.: “At the very moment.” (Comp. Isaiah 42:14.) This, too, is the meaning of “withal,” used to render the same Hebrew word in Psalms 141:10.

Thou, Lord, only. — The authority of all the ancient Versions, including the LXX. and Vulg., is for taking the adverb with the predicate, not with the subject as in the Authorised Version: “Thou, Jehovah, makest me to dwell alone in safety.” We see from Jeremiah 49:31; Micah 7:14, that isolation from other nations was, in the Hebrew view, a guarantee against danger. This certainly favours the view that the poem is national rather than individual.

For the concluding verses of the psalm Luther had a great affection, and desired Ludvig Teuffel to set them as the words of a requiem for him.